END OF FAIRGROUNDS GUN SHOWS SOUGHT

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, a coalition of Del Mar residents is taking a stand against gun shows hosted at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Their campaign started with a simple hand-scrawled sign, posted last month on Crest Road, that says “Stop Del Mar Gun Show and Sale.” It lists the next show dates, coming up in March, and encourages people to show support by sending an email.

Meanwhile, residents supporting the gun shows are writing letters of support to counter the protest.

Rosanne Holliday, a mother and former teacher of young children who created the protest sign, said she was devastated after the Sandy Hook massacre, in which a 20-year-old man, Adam Lanza, fatally shot 26 people at the school, mostly young children. Lanza was armed with an assault rifle and two handguns.

“The Sandy Hook shooting really hit me hard, as I’m sure it did everyone,” she said. “For days I thought and read nothing else. Part of it was thinking about the grief of these parents and the terror the children must have experienced and the bravery of those teachers. It was so overwhelming.”

Holliday was determined to do something, and she started close to home. Her goal was simple, she said.

“We want to end gun sales on public land here in Del Mar,” she said. “Everyone needs to do what they can. There are a lot of ways to tackle this national issue. I’m kind of locally minded, and I think I can do this little bit.”

Holliday’s focus may be local, but other concerned residents who have taken up the cause already have started discussing approaching Gov. Jerry Brown, said the 73-year-old Holliday.

Bud Emerson, a Del Mar resident and community activist, was one of the first to contact Holliday about the sign. Emerson is no stranger to the issue, having protested the fairgrounds gun shows in 2000.

“You wouldn’t celebrate drug use or porn, would you?” he said.

Some 1,200 people have signed a petition against the gun show. Members are being encouraged to write letters to the 22nd District Agricultural Association, the organization that runs the fairgrounds.

At a meeting of the Republican Party of San Diego in Rancho Bernardo on Monday evening, National Rifle Association volunteer Michael Schwartz urged the crowd of more than 200 to write letters to the fair board supporting the gun show. And many of them did.

Schwartz sent nearly 200 letters Thursday to the agricultural association.

He said many of the letters that supporters have written stress how much residents in the region appreciate the gun show for its family atmosphere.

“I’ve been going to the show since the 1990s. I’ve attended with my dad, brother, brother-in-law and many friends,” said Dennis Schlentz, a writer from Ramona.

“This show has been run professionally and there has been no problems. It would be a sad day if this show were to close.”

Adam Day, president of the fair board, said Crossroads of the West has been managing the fairgrounds’ gun shows for more than two decades. The organization holds five shows per year, providing a net profit of $324,000 to the fairgrounds, Day said. He reiterated the association’s intention to continue the gun shows.

“California has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country,” Day said. “The shows we host are fully licensed and in conformance with all applicable rules and regulations.

“If someone were to ask me to consider banning the shows, I would be looking for the correlation between these shows specifically and gun violence,” he said.